Comments on: Ask Gayle: What can a student now do to prep for a programming position? http://blog.careercup.com/2010/05/ask-gayle-what-can-a-student-now-do-to-prep-for-a-programming-position/ Career Advice for Programmers Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:15:13 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Viraj http://blog.careercup.com/2010/05/ask-gayle-what-can-a-student-now-do-to-prep-for-a-programming-position/#comment-39171 Viraj Fri, 11 Nov 2011 09:00:29 +0000 http://blog.careercup.com/?p=69#comment-39171 Hi Gayle, I'm an Engineering graduate from India (Majored in Information science). I'm currently working in a services software company in Business Intelligence and Data warehousing where i deal with Reporting and dashboarding tools, so there has been a gap in my programming since college. I want to make a shift to a programming job with a product based company, would you suggest me a book (I already have your 'Cracking Coding interview') where i can start to go through the basics and possible land a job with a good company in 3 months? Regards, Viraj Hi Gayle,

I’m an Engineering graduate from India (Majored in Information science). I’m currently working in a services software company in Business Intelligence and Data warehousing where i deal with Reporting and dashboarding tools, so there has been a gap in my programming since college.
I want to make a shift to a programming job with a product based company, would you suggest me a book (I already have your ‘Cracking Coding interview’) where i can start to go through the basics and possible land a job with a good company in 3 months?

Regards,
Viraj

]]> By: raga http://blog.careercup.com/2010/05/ask-gayle-what-can-a-student-now-do-to-prep-for-a-programming-position/#comment-6344 raga Thu, 28 Oct 2010 02:35:54 +0000 http://blog.careercup.com/?p=69#comment-6344 I have been working for this company for 4 years now after my Masters in CS. CLRS algorithm is something that does not come into play in my daily life. I am good in - designing new systems (with simple algos... possibly use boost graph library to represent relationships and use yacc use our own graph query language..make a nice distributed client server model where server has simple db reads and some business logic.. stuff like that).... - writing code that is efficient and easy to maintain... (I am on leave and if you get a call at night since my code is having troubles... it will be very easy for you to fix it.. )... - using design patterns in a limited way to make things more understandable and re-usables. I believe and have been told it comes with experience :) - and ofcourse throw me in code, any language and give me a bug to resolve and I shall be at it and get it solved, at a reasonable pace. I would know CLRS but I might not know out of the box k-means clustering algo. is. But given a clustering problem I would be able to figure out how to approach it by asking around with people in that domain, looking around internet ... I have also learned to think about the product rather than just the algos. So ex. what about google maps that would transport it to the next level vs loading google maps faster (hypothetical example) My point being some people are interested in algos like sort 1M numbers with 200KB mem kind of stuff.. some folks have a knack to make a product better, who come up with the problems.. How does one bring out the latter skill in interview. Please note that it is the hardest skill for a panel of interviewers to judge intangible assets like shaping a product type of thing. I have been working for this company for 4 years now after my Masters in CS. CLRS algorithm is something that does not come into play in my daily life. I am good in
- designing new systems (with simple algos… possibly use boost graph library to represent relationships and use yacc use our own graph query language..make a nice distributed client server model where server has simple db reads and some business logic.. stuff like that)….
- writing code that is efficient and easy to maintain… (I am on leave and if you get a call at night since my code is having troubles… it will be very easy for you to fix it.. )…
- using design patterns in a limited way to make things more understandable and re-usables. I believe and have been told it comes with experience :)
- and ofcourse throw me in code, any language and give me a bug to resolve and I shall be at it and get it solved, at a reasonable pace.

I would know CLRS but I might not know out of the box k-means clustering algo. is. But given a clustering problem I would be able to figure out how to approach it by asking around with people in that domain, looking around internet …

I have also learned to think about the product rather than just the algos. So ex. what about google maps that would transport it to the next level vs loading google maps faster (hypothetical example)

My point being some people are interested in algos like sort 1M numbers with 200KB mem kind of stuff.. some folks have a knack to make a product better, who come up with the problems..

How does one bring out the latter skill in interview. Please note that it is the hardest skill for a panel of interviewers to judge intangible assets like shaping a product type of thing.

]]> By: PY http://blog.careercup.com/2010/05/ask-gayle-what-can-a-student-now-do-to-prep-for-a-programming-position/#comment-286 PY Wed, 30 Jun 2010 13:16:42 +0000 http://blog.careercup.com/?p=69#comment-286 Hi Gayle, I did several programming projects, some were in C, Java , JavaScript and Python.So I have put those languages on my resume. However I usually practice programming problems with Java , just because I like the fact that I do not need to take care of pointers in Java and I find the APIs very useful. Because I am quite comfortable with Java and tend to forget the syntax of things like pointer to a function and similar things,should I continue listing these languages (i.e. other than Java) on my resume ? If I have to take another class with the above languages I can easily catch up in a week . I am worried that the interviewer might start grilling me on C concepts because it is on my resume for some of the class projects ? What do you think I should do ? Hi Gayle,

I did several programming projects, some were in C, Java , JavaScript and Python.So I have put those languages on my resume. However I usually practice programming problems with Java , just because I like the fact that I do not need to take care of pointers in Java and I find the APIs very useful.

Because I am quite comfortable with Java and tend to forget the syntax of things like pointer to a function and similar things,should I continue listing these languages (i.e. other than Java) on my resume ? If I have to take another class with the above languages I can easily catch up in a week . I am worried that the interviewer might start grilling me on C concepts because it is on my resume for some of the class projects ? What do you think I should do ?

]]> By: Gayle Laakmann http://blog.careercup.com/2010/05/ask-gayle-what-can-a-student-now-do-to-prep-for-a-programming-position/#comment-27 Gayle Laakmann Mon, 31 May 2010 20:09:35 +0000 http://blog.careercup.com/?p=69#comment-27 It's very common to not remember the exact methods. We all google the answers to things like that :). Depending on what syntax you're forgetting, it may not be a big deal to many interviewers. You probably just need more practice. What I would recommend is this: (1) Take interview problems and practice implementing them. Feel free to use a compiler. If there are particular things you're missing up on, put special focus on those areas. Once you feel reasonably comfortable with this, go to step 2. (2) Practice interview problems WITHOUT a compiler. Just write the code by hand. This is considerably more difficult, but it's the sort of practice you need. It’s very common to not remember the exact methods. We all google the answers to things like that :) . Depending on what syntax you’re forgetting, it may not be a big deal to many interviewers.

You probably just need more practice. What I would recommend is this:
(1) Take interview problems and practice implementing them. Feel free to use a compiler. If there are particular things you’re missing up on, put special focus on those areas. Once you feel reasonably comfortable with this, go to step 2.

(2) Practice interview problems WITHOUT a compiler. Just write the code by hand. This is considerably more difficult, but it’s the sort of practice you need.

]]> By: PY http://blog.careercup.com/2010/05/ask-gayle-what-can-a-student-now-do-to-prep-for-a-programming-position/#comment-25 PY Mon, 31 May 2010 01:45:11 +0000 http://blog.careercup.com/?p=69#comment-25 Thanks for your response. During my undergrad at University of Minnesota, I did take 6 CS classes including operating systems, data structures & algorithms(CNRS),databases and object oriented programming with data structures in Java. However my problem is that even though I did really well in these classes , I do not remember the syntax of several functions at the top of my head. That is why I am not sure if I will be able to handle white board interviews where the expect you to write a good amount of code. I am quite confident that I get the logic correct almost all the time but converting it to code is where I am not so comfortable. During class projects I used to Google C/Java functions that can help me meet my objective. So how should I overcome it ? Thanks for your response. During my undergrad at University of Minnesota, I did take 6 CS classes including operating systems, data structures & algorithms(CNRS),databases and object oriented programming with data structures in Java. However my problem is that even though I did really well in these classes , I do not remember the syntax of several functions at the top of my head. That is why I am not sure if I will be able to handle white board interviews where the expect you to write a good amount of code. I am quite confident that I get the logic correct almost all the time but converting it to code is where I am not so comfortable. During class projects I used to Google C/Java functions that can help me meet my objective. So how should I overcome it ?

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